Strong winds, heavy rain in Japan's Ishigaki as super typhoon Champi nears

A powerful typhoon headed towards Chinese Taiwan on Thursday, triggering the cancellation of dozens of flights and prompting warnings for locals to prepare for heavy rain, strong winds and giant waves. Typhoon Champi is expected to sweep past Chinese Taiwan's northeast coast on Friday and Saturday as it moves towards China and Japan.

Champi has maximum sustained wind speeds of nearly 121 miles per hour. Champi is the latest in a busy Pacific storm season turbo-charged by the El Nino weather phenomenon that has caused unprecedented warming in the equatorial Pacific.